


Into the wood

by satanvale



Category: EXO (Band)
Genre: Action/Adventure, Adventure & Romance, Alternate Universe - Creatures & Monsters, Angst, Blood and Violence, Bottom Byun Baekhyun, Byun Baekhyun & Do Kyungsoo | D.O Friendship, Byun Baekhyun Smut, Byun Baekhyun/Park Chanyeol Smut, Celtic Mythology & Folklore, ChanBaek - Freeform, Fights, Gay Sex, Happy Ending, Human Byun Baekhyun, M/M, Magic, Monsters, Mythical Beings & Creatures, Park Chanyeol Smut, Smut, Top Park Chanyeol, Urban Fantasy, Water Sex, Wendigo, mention of non-con
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-31
Updated: 2020-10-31
Packaged: 2021-03-09 01:01:30
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 16
Words: 17,806
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27046153
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/satanvale/pseuds/satanvale
Summary: Something is following him.Baekhyun is sure of it, he feels like someone is always behind him since he arrived at his aunt's house in the middle of the wood. He can feel his breath, he can hear him whispering things.Something ancient and evil lives in that wood and Baekhyun's summer is not going to be boring, as he thought.
Relationships: Byun Baekhyun/Park Chanyeol
Comments: 68
Kudos: 162
Collections: EXO MONSTERFEST 2020





	1. Chapter one

**Author's Note:**

> prompt:#O170
> 
> I'm so excited about this fic, I really hope you will enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it!  
> I'm sorry for my English but it's not my first language.  
> Thank you for reading it!

“ Come on Baekhyun, it’s just for the summer and if you would have passed your last exams this was not going to happen. There you’ll have all the time to study, it’s the perfect place, no distractions and it’s been a while since you last saw your aunt and your cousin, you used to like going there when you were a kid!” said his mother while they were in the car.

“ When I was ten years old, mum, now I’m…”

“ A man? Then prove it, survive these months there, study and when you come back you’ll have to pass all the exams”

He sighed.

He knew that he couldn’t argue with his mum, she was stubborn and he was like her, he couldn’t change her mind.

All that because of his damn university. He couldn’t call himself the perfect student, but he was pretty good, then that bastard happened.

He was sure to have found the love of his life, how stupid he had been?

He was so blind, people told him to be careful, that he had changed, that his boyfriend was manipulating and using him, but he laughed at them. He didn’t see what the others saw.

He lived like that for two years, until he found out that he sold photos and videos they took during their intimate moments. He was always happy when he brought him gifts, a lot of gifts, and he never wondered where he got the money from.

After his discovery, he threw everything away and he spent months in bed. He didn’t cry, but he couldn’t live, he became like a zombie, he couldn’t trust people anymore. During those terrible months, he stopped to study and he started to fail exams.

Then summer came, a day his mum was on the phone with her sister and she had that idea: sending him to her for the summer.

Her mum was born in a strange family. She didn’t know her father and her mother, his grandmother, died before he was born but she raised her two daughters alone, in her little house, at the limit of the wood. On a side there was the city, on the other there was the wood. His mum always told him how she played in the wood when she was a kid, something that he couldn’t experience in his room, playing with videogames.

Even if she really loved that house, her family and that wood she understood that staying there would have cut her wings, she had a lot of dreams and she knew she could achieve them just moving from there and going to live in the city, where then she got a job, a husband and then a son. While her sister decided to stay there, she also got married and a son, his cousin Kyungsoo, but his uncle disappeared years ago.

They looked for him everywhere, he remembered that her mum left for a whole week to join the researches in the wood, but they had never found him.

“ Ah, the air is already different, you can smell the wood!” exclaimed her mother with a bright smile.

The last time he went there he was a kid. He liked that place, he had good memories of his aunt and his cousin, but he wasn’t that excited at the idea of spending the whole summer there. He didn’t have a lot of friends but at least at home he could go out and go to a club or to a coffee shop, the city had a lot of things to offer, while there, he would have been isolated from everything and everyone since Wi-fi didn’t even work.

“ Maybe this is going to help me not only with the university but also to forget him” he told himself that morning while he was getting ready.

“ Baekhyun, you know I can’t reach the house with the car and I have to go back immediately for work so I’m going to drop you here, do you remember the path?”

Her mum parked at the edge of the street, in front of them there was the wood and a little path.

“ Yes, don’t worry mum.”

“ Remember Baekhyun, follow the path, do not leave it, you don’t know these woods and you could get lost easily, ok?”

“ Mum, I’m not a kid or an idiot.”

“ Maybe you’re not a kid, about the idiot…”

“ Mum!”

She laughed

“ I love you Baekhyun, take your time, heal your mind and soul, ok? Hug Kyungsoo and my sister for me.”

There he was, his bag in a hand and the other in the air, to make a big wasp going away.

“ I love nature” he sighed.

The more he walked through the wood, the quieter the place became, he was leaving behind all the noises of the city. Silence, that was all he could hear, if silence could be heard.

Some animals running through the plants, maybe scared by his presence, some birds singing and the noise of his steps.

Another thing that hit him was the smell, he could smell the nature, plants, flowers, the soil, everything had a smell to him, his mum was right, the air there was so different.

“ I didn’t remember the house to be that far away!” he exclaimed while stopping so he could take his hoodie off and put it in his bag.

He had just closed the bag when he heard something.

At first, he didn’t pay attention to it, it must have been a rabbit or a bird flying from a tree to another. He took a few steps and he stopped again, it was like his instinct was trying to tell him something.

“ Baekhyun, it’s just an animal, you’re in the wood!”

He felt observed.

“ It’s a place full of animals, they’re curious and they’re watching me.”

That was his first rational thought and it calmed him down, he almost felt like an idiot. What was he thinking? That someone was following him?

He laughed alone, his mother always told him that his laugh was so loud that it could wake deads up.

_Crack._

_Crack._

A breath.

No, it was an animal. Those were the sounds of an animal, maybe more than one, typical woods’ sounds.

He was so sure to have felt someone breathing.

Without even realizing it he had started to walk faster.

He was sure that his mind was tricking him because it couldn’t be that an animal was following him, it wasn’t possible that the faster he walked, the nearer he felt those noises.

He didn’t know when he started to run, but there he was, running following a path into the wood.

It was like his senses were all lighted up like a Christmas tree. He ran, but he was sure he wasn’t the only one who was running, so he went faster.

A voice in his mind told him to turn around, if he looked behind him he would have seen that nothing was following him, that he was just an idiot, as his mum said.

There was also another voice, it was telling him not to look behind, because…

_Sbam_

“ Baekhyun?”

He was on the ground, a hand on his nose that hurt after having crashed against something, or better someone and that someone was his cousin Kyungsoo who was standing in front of him.

“ Baekhyun, are you ok? You didn’t see me, you were running so fast! Your mum called telling us that you were coming, so I was walking towards you!”

“ I’m so sorry Kyungsoo, I hope I didn’t hurt you!”

“ I’m not the one on the ground, let me help you” he said laughing, giving him a hand to stand up.

“ You didn’t change, cousin” he exclaimed looking at him.

“ You’re still short as I remember.”

Kyungsoo laughed.

“ But I can beat you, whenever I want, Baekhyun.”

They hugged each other.

“ Come, mum can’t wait to see you! I know that maybe this is not the summer someone would love to have, but I’m happy you’re here Baekhyun” he said while they were walking toward the house.


	2. Chapter two

“ As you can see the house changed from the last time you were here” exclaimed Kyungsoo while he was opening the door.

“ It got older, like your aunt.”

“ Aunt!” he exclaimed smiling when he saw the woman going toward him.

“ Come here Baekhyun and hug your aunt! Look at you, you became such a beautiful man!”

His aunt was younger than his mum, but since his uncle disappeared it was like she lost years of her life.

“ I’m so happy you’re here, we both are.”

“ Thank you for having me here.”

“ I’m sorry your mum couldn’t join us but that woman always thinks too much at her work. Speaking of work, I’m sorry for the mess you’ll find in your room Baekhyun, I worked a lot in the last months and I don’t know where to put my paintings anymore!”

“ Don’t worry aunt, I’ve always loved your art, it will be a pleasure to see it every day in the room.”

“ Kyungsoo, help him to bring his things in his room, thirty minutes and dinner is ready guys!”

“ A computer? You know that there is no Wi-Fi here, Baekhyun.”

“ I know, but there are games that you can play offline” he said winking at him.

“ Your mum told me that you have a lot to study.”

“ Come on Kyungsoo, of course, I will study, but it’s summer and I’m finally here with you, let’s also have some fun.”

“ Baekhyun, you know that I don’t know what having fun means. I go to the city for my university’s lessons in the morning and I come back in the evening, this is my life, I don’t have time to go out and not a lot of people want to hang out with the weird guy who lives in the wood and whose dad disappeared and whose mother paints stranger creatures for living” he said sadly.

“ Their loss Kyungsoo, they’re dickheads, you don’t deserve the company of those people.”

His cousin smiled.

“ I’m really happy you’re here.”

“ Guys, dinner!” screamed his aunt.

“ Let’s go, I’m so hungry!”

“ Ah, Baekhyun, why were you running?”

Because something was following me.

“ A bee, I saw a very big bee” he lied making Kyungsoo laugh.

They talked a lot during dinner, his aunt asked him a lot of things, about the city, his mum and his life.

“ Sorry if I talk too much, Baekhyun, but your cousin doesn’t like to chat a lot” she said laughing.

“ That is not true!” said offended Kyungsoo.

“ Well, you’ve always been a silent person, Kyungsoo.”

“ Oh great, now I have two persons against me!”

They all laughed.

They spent hours talking ad eating and also having a glass of an old liquor his aunt kept for special occasions.

“ Oh god, it’s so late boys, this old lady is going to bed now! Baekhyun, you know that this is also your house as long as you’re here, so feel free to do whatever you want, just one thing, do not go into the wood, ok?”

He nodded.

“ Good boy, now I go. Goodnight guys.”

“ She used to let me go into the wood, you know. She had always told me to be careful, there are legends about these woods, but when dad disappeared she changed. She used to love this place and the wood, now she’s almost terrified by it, she hardly leaves this house Baekhyun, there are periods where she can’t even walk around the garden, if you noticed all the flowers and plants she planted years ago are now dead.”

“ She needs time.”

“ Time? Baekhyun, it has been years! I think she…I don’t know what happened to her, I’m just worried.”

“ Kyungsoo, you’re the best son she could have, you’ve always taken care of her and you still do it, perfectly, do not worry too much.”

Kyungsoo sadly smiled.

“ Let’s go to bed, after your run today I’m sure you’re tired” he said laughing.

Kyungsoo was right, he was exhausted. After a quick shower, he finally jumped into a not very soft bed.

He was so used to the city’s noises that he couldn’t sleep because of the deep silence. It was so strange to him.

He could hear his heart beating and if he listened well he knew that he could hear his cousin breathing on the other room.

He tried to close his eyes, but the memory of what happened that afternoon hit him and without even realizing it his heart was beating faster.

“ You’re an idiot Baekhyun” he told himself, changing his position as if in that way he could delete that memory.

He kept changing the position, but the bed was less and less comfortable, the silent too loud and his mind didn’t want to let him sleep.

“ I need to get used to all this, I can’t spend sleepless nights for months” he sighed.

He looked around, he slept in that room even when he was a kid and it hadn’t changed, except for the number of paintings that were everywhere. On the table, on the floor, in every corner of the room.

He remembered some paintings of his aunt, he remembered the wood in them and the strange creatures, like fairies, rabbits with a foxtail, gnomes, snakes with wings….

“ You’re going to give nightmares to the kids!” said once his mother, but the truth was that he was fascinated by those paintings.

“ Aunt, where did you see those strange animals?” he asked her once.

“ Baekhyun, she didn’t see them, she imagined them! Those creatures do not exist” answered her mother, but as soon as she left the room her aunt went near him and winking at him said: “ In the wood, dear Baekhyun.”

Did she still paint those animals?

He was curious and since he couldn’t sleep he left the bed and started to admire the paintings.

He started from the ones on the tables.

He smiled.

Yes, his aunt still painted the same strange creatures he remembered. A blue fairy playing with an apple on a rock, a big bee with a corn running after a scared gnome, a howl with a cow tail.

When he was a kid he was sure that he could find those animals in the wood.

He looked at other paintings and the more he looked the more he noticed a change, probably the ones he was looking at now were more recent.

His aunt’s paintings were always full of light, she always used very bright colors for everything, even for the smallest detail and up in the sky, in a corner, you could often see the sun. The painting he was staring at now was the opposite, it was so dark that the strange animal in it was almost not visible.

Maybe she wanted to try new things, he thought, but the darkness was not the only different thing he noticed.

Her creatures were very strange, but never creepy, at least in her old paintings. If he had seen those new ones when he was a kid probably he would have had a lot of bad nightmares.

Those drawings looked so real that he could imagine one of those creatures following him in the wood, maybe it was one of them that followed him that afternoon.

“ I have to go back to bed or I won’t be able to sleep because of nightmares.”

He had just turned his back, ready to go to bed again, when he noticed a new painting. It was on the floor, against the corner and it was covered by a sheet.

Maybe it was there because her aunt didn’t want anyone to see it, or maybe it was the one she was working on. He was too curious.

He gently took the painting and took the sheet away.

His aunt never drew humans, fairies were probably the most human lookalike subjects she put in her paintings.

In that painting there was a man, well he looked like a man at first sight but he wasn’t. He was on the grass, laying on his hip, he was staring at the sky, with a melancholic look. He was beautiful, with long white hair, big ears and round eyes, his lips looked so soft and pinkie. He really looked like a handsome man, except for two things.

He had a tail, a fox tail, white as his hair, it looked very soft.

He wasn’t wearing a shirt, but there was something on his back where he couldn’t see the bronze skin of the rest of his body, but something darker. He focused on that detail and he realized that the boy’s back was made of bark.

He had seen a lot of strange things in his aunt’s paintings, but that? That was something so strange that he really wanted to know from where she took her inspiration.

Even in his sleep, that night, he couldn’t stop thinking about that fascinating creature


	3. Chapter three

“ From the look on your face I think you didn’t sleep a lot, Baekhyun” exclaimed his cousin when he joined him at the kitchen table.

“ Oh, dear Baekhyun, didn’t you sleep?” asked his aunt worriedly.

“ I just need to get used, you know. Don’t worry, really.”

“ So guys, I’ll spend the day painting, I have a few things to finish, what will you do? Baekhyun, your mum told me you have a lot to study.”

He sighed.

“ Yes, I know. I will study, I promise.”

“ I’ll keep you company Baekhyun don’t worry, I have few things to study too.”

When his aunt left, he and Kyungsoo put their books on the table and started to study, but after not even an hour Baekhyun was already thinking about everything but what there was in the book in front of him.

“ Did you already give up?” asked Kyungsoo laughing.

“ My brain just needs more breaks than normal people.”

He also kept thinking about the painting he saw the previous night.

“ Kyungsoo, can I ask you a thing? Yesterday night I couldn’t sleep, so I look at the paintings your mum left in my room, did she perhaps started to experiment with a new style?”

“ Did you notice it too?”

He nodded.

“ She started to paint like that when dad disappeared, I think that it’s how she expresses her feelings, those paintings show how she feels inside, but sometimes they make me shiver. I wonder if those are her nightmares.”

He really hoped it wasn’t like that, otherwise, his aunt had hell in her mind.

“ One, in particular, caught my attention.”

“ I think I know what you’re talking about, actually she doesn’t like people to look at it, I don’t know why. Once I entered while she was painting it, she was too focused on it and she didn't notice I was there, so I had time to look at it, but as soon as she saw me, she ran to close the door. She told me that painting was too ugly and she was ashamed of it, so she didn’t want me to see it.”

“ I have never seen that…creature.”

“ Me too, he’s…”

“ Fascinating, beautiful, seductive.”

His cousin nodded.

“ She has a lot of fantasy.”

They went back to study even if he was too curious about that painting. He wanted to know what there was behind it, but the only person he could ask to was his aunt, which meant that he couldn’t have an answer.

After a whole day of study, even if with several breaks, he thought that maybe his mum was not wrong, that place, with so few distractions, really helped him to focus on his books.

“ I studied more today than in a whole week at my place” he said when he finally closed the book.

“ Then you both deserve a pizza, guys. Kyungsoo why don’t you take your cousin out? The nearest pizza restaurant is thirty minutes from here” suggested her aunt entering the kitchen.

“ What do you think, Baekhyun?”

“ My answer is always yes when pizza is involved!”

“ I know It’s not like the places you’re used to in the city, but this is what we have here” said embarrassed Kyungsoo, when they took their sit in a very small restaurant that smelled like fried chicken.

“ I’m sure the pizza is very good, I don’t care about the place.”

He was wrong, that pizza was terrible, the most terrible he had ever eaten, but he didn’t want to make his cousin sad, so he ate it all with a smile on his face.

They were leaving the place when they bumped into a group of young people.

“ Look who is here, the weird guy who lives in the wood with his crazy mum” exclaimed a guy.

“ Isn’t he the one whose dead disappeared?” asked a girl.

“ Yes, but I don’t think he disappeared, I’m sure his mum killed him, she’s crazy, everyone knows it!”

“ What did you say?” suddenly said Baekhyun, angrily.

He knew that Kyungsoo was used to that, but he wasn’t and he couldn’t let those bastards talking like that about his family.

“ And who are you? His boyfriend? “ asked laughing a girl.

“ I’m the cousin of the weird guy from the wood.”

“ Oh, another weirdo, I see, is craziness part of your family?” said a guy, making everyone laugh.

The last time he hit someone he was at primary school, a kid called Sehun had stolen his toy and so he punched him.

“ Baekhyun!” screamed Kyungsoo when the other guy hit him back.

If it wasn't for the owner of the place who came to divide them he knew that he would have left that restaurant with a broken nose, he wasn’t good at those things.

“ What did you think to do, Baekhyun? Are you crazy?” asked Kyungsoo while they were going back home.

“ Did you hear what he said about you, your mum, our family?”

“ Of course, I’m not deaf and I hear those things so many times.”

“ It’s not fair, Kyungsoo.”

“ Lot of things are not fair, Baekhyun, but hitting someone is never the solution. What did you earn from that?”

“ A black eye?”

They both laughed.

“ Are you ready for a walk into the wood at night?” asked Kyungsoo while parking.

“ Right, I forgot it.”

When they left for the pizza the sun was still up and the path, also thanks to Kyungsoo’s company, didn’t look that scary, but now? Now he had to admit it, the dark made everything creepier, the only light they had came from Kyungsoo’s torch.

The silence of the wood at night was different.

“ We’re almost arrived” exclaimed Kyungsoo, almost scaring him.

A shiver, running through his body.

He felt it, again, it was the same thing he felt the previous day. It was like someone was looking at him, as if someone was following him.

“ What?” asked Kyungsoo when he stopped to look back.

“ Nothing I thought to have heard something.”

“ You’ve heard something, this place is full of animals, Baekhyun” he said laughing.

“ You know what people of here say? Whenever you feel a noise into the wood, never look back” he added.

“ W-why?”

“ You might not be ready to see what is following you.”

Great, now he wasn’t frightened, not at all.

But maybe Kyungsoo was right, did he really want to see what was following him, so close that he could feel his breath?


	4. Chapter four

“ Baekhyun!”

Someone was on his bed and was calling him. When he opened his eyes he saw his cousin.

“ What time is it?”

“ Seven in the morning.”

“ What? And why did you wake me up?”

“ A very rare thing happened, mum left, she’s probably going to sell some of her paintings, so…”

“ So?”

“ I want to show you the wood!”

“ I still have to properly wake up, but I’m sure to remember that your mum said not to go into the wood.”

“ She’s afraid of it, and I don’t blame her, but it’s just a wood, come on!”

“ Well, why not, I can study more tomorrow.”

“ Exactly! Come on, get up, the sooner we go, the more time we have to visit the wood!”

“What the hell were you doing in the bathroom? I thought you were dead!” said Kyugsoo when Baekhyun finally reached him, ready for their adventure in the wood.

“ I was putting sunscreen all over my body, I have very sensitive skin and I don’t want to have wrinkles when I’m older!”

Kyungsoo laughed.

“ Let’s go, I bought some snacks and water, if you and your sensitive skin get hungry.”

“ So we’ll follow the path, ok? Never leave it, before you get lost and…”

“ And?”

“ Well you know, people from here say that if you lose the path, you could lose your life.”

“ People from here always have the right words to calm me down.”

Even if the night before the wood seemed dark and scary to him, now, with the sun up in the sky, he was enjoying the view of trees and little animals running through flowers.

“ It’s beautiful” he exclaimed, looking around.

“ I know, I think this place is magical, I mean, can you feel it? There is something here, something full of energy, I don’t know how to explain it.”

Baekhyun totally understood what his cousin meant, he felt it too.

He felt the wood in every step he took, in every breath he made.

Kyungsoo talked about energy, he could feel it, but he also had another word to describe what he felt.

Wild.

Ancient.

Some of those trees were so old that probably had seen Alexander Magnus.

“ The sun is so hot today!” exclaimed Baekhyun, drinking.

“ Are you tired?”

“ Well, I wouldn’t say no to a break, if only we find a place not under the sun.”

“I know a perfect place for our break.”

“ Perfect, let’s go then!”

“ But we have to leave the path to reach it.”

“ Oh.”

“ I know what I told you earlier, but it’s not that far away ad it’s safe. I’ve been there before but if you don’t feel to, we won’t go.”

“ A path is just a path, I’m not afraid of leaving it, let’s go.”

“ Wow” he exclaimed once they reached the place Kyungsoo talked about.

In front of them, there was what a little lake, surrounded by rocks and trees as if they were hiding it from the world.

“ It’s artificial, it was made years and years ago so that people who lived here could have a source of water in case of emergency.”

“ It’s beautiful.”

“ And the water is always perfect, want to try it?”

“ Can we?”

Kyungsoo started to take his clothes off until he was wearing just his underwear.

“ Of course we can, city boy” he said winking at him.

His cousin turned his back to him and jumped into the water, appearing a few seconds later.

“ Baekhyun, it’s so refreshing, come!”

He started to take his clothes off too, he had just put his pants on a rock when he felt a shiver going through his back.

“ Do not turn around” a voice whispered in his head.

He could hear it. It wasn’t just a feeling, he could hear something behind him.

Then the steps stopped.

A breath.

“ Do not turn around” said his instinct.

“ Turn around” whispered a voice in his ear.

“ Baekhyun, what are you waiting for?” screamed Kyungsoo.

Suddenly whatever there was behind him disappeared.

“ What’s the face? A giant bee again?” asked laughing Kyungsoo when Baekhyun joined him in the water

“ Yeah” he answered, smiling.

He couldn’t stop thinking about what had just happened. He knew that it wasn’t his imagination, he knew what he felt, he knew what he heard.

But at the same time, how could that be true? What was the explanation?

An animal, but could animals talk? He was sure to have heard that voice.

“ Kyungsoo, you told me people talk a lot about this wood, I’m curious.”

“ Just old legends to scare kids and tourists.”

“ For example?”

“ They say this wood is full of fairies, gnomes and other creatures that are even more ancient. They say that if you don’t follow the path, made by humans, those creatures will take you or better seduce you till you will follow them into the deepest part of the wood, once there they will use you as they please. Sometimes they kill humans, sometimes they let them live but when they go back to their families they’re not the same anymore, it’s like they went mad, totally mad.”

“ That’s creepy.”

“ Yeah, but people from here believe in that.”

“ And you?”

“ There was a time when I wanted to believe it, I wanted to believe that my dad didn’t disappear, but he was in the wood, dancing with some fairies and that maybe one day he would have come back” he said sadly smiling.

They stayed there for a few hours, it was so relaxing that he had almost forgotten about the strange creature that kept following him till he arrived.

“ It’s time to go, before my mum comes back!”

While they were walking back home some clouds hid the sun.

“ Let’s hurry up, it’s probably going to rain soon” exclaimed Kyungsoo.

The exact moment they entered the house and closed the door behind them it started to rain.

“ Wow, we had been lucky!” said Baekhyun.

“ Lucky? No, I would not say that, boys.”

“ Aunt!”

“ Mum!”

His aunt was in front of them, and she looked very angry.

“ Where had you been? In the wood, right?”

“ Mum, I can explain.”


	5. Chapter five

“ There is nothing to explain, Kyungsoo! I’ve been clear, you know that I don’t want you to go into the wood and not only you disobeyed me but you brought there your cousin too!”

“ It’s just a wood, we used to go there before…”

“ It’s not just a wood, Kyungsoo! Oh, you think I’m crazy, like everyone else here, am I right? The crazy woman who paints strange creatures and who lost her husband.”

“ Mum-“

“ Not even my son believes me, not even my son trusts me. If I said not to go into the wood, I have my reasons, Kyungsoo!”

“ Then explain them to me!”

“ The wood is dangerous.”

“ You’ve already said it!”

They were screaming at each other and Baekhyun had never felt uncomfortable like at that moment. He could understand both of them.

“ It’s useless, you will never understand” said his aunt.

“ Because you will never tell me the truth!” exclaimed Kyungsoo leaving the kitchen and going to his room

His aunt looked at him.

“ I-I think I’ll go too, I’m very tired” he said leaving the kitchen too.

He had just opened a book to read, while lying on his bed, when someone knocked at the door.

“ Baekhyun, it’s me, can I come in?”

“ Of course, aunt!”

“ Kyungsoo said that he’s not hungry, but I know he’s just too proud to join me for dinner, he will snick off in the kitchen later, when everyone is sleeping. I thought that maybe you’re hungry too but after what you saw, well maybe you’re not that happy to join me.”

She had a tray with some food on it in her hands.

“ You don’t have to apologize and thank you for the food, really!”

“ I’m sorry you had to see that, actually it’s not a rare thing, we often quarrel since…since it’s just two of us.”

“ I’m very sorry.”

“ I know it’s hard to understand, but I’m just trying to protect him.”

“ He knows it, aunt.”

“ I’ve already lost my husband, I can’t lose my son too.”

He felt so sad for his aunt.

“ You won’t lose him!” he said hugging her.

“ I hope you didn’t look at those paintings, otherwise I understand why you couldn’t sleep” she said looking around the room.

“ Well, I was curious. Are you trying a new style?”

“ We could say that, yes.”

He couldn’t read her face.

“ Aunt, I know that maybe you don’t want to say certain things to Kyungsoo and you have your reasons, but I’m here if you want to talk. If you want to talk, I’m a good listener.”

She smiled.

“ You’re kind like your mother. When we were kids she often told me that thing too, she was a really good listener.”

“ Those things you painted, are those the reasons why you don’t want Kyungsoo to go around the wood?”

He knew that a normal person would have never asked such a question because that implied the existence of those creatures, but he knew that he had to ask.

“ You know, I’ve always wondered from where you take your inspiration. Do you remember when I asked you this when I was a kid and you told me that you saw those things in the wood? I believed you, aunt and honestly I know that I can believe you even know.”

“ How can you believe me if I say that those creatures really exist and are not something that mind created? 

He was trying to find a rational explanation, but deep down, there was a little voice, maybe the same that told him not to turn around in the wood, that was telling him that his aunt was not crazy, as everyone thought.

“ Is the wood dangerous because of them?”

“ No, they’ve been there since ever, they never hurt anyone. It’s said that there are humans that can see the creatures that belong to other worlds, I see them since I was a kid and I went to play in the wood with your mother. Of course, no one believed me, they thought I had imaginary friends, but I knew they were all real, so since I couldn’t talk about them I started to paint them.”

“ But something happened, I can tell it from your last paintings.”

“ Something else came, something ancient and powerful, something that didn’t belong to this wood.”

“ Did you see this new creature?”

She nodded and Baekhyun was sure to see the fear in her eyes.

“ At first I just felt it, creatures like him don’t let humans see them unless they want it. I felt it, like a wave of energy, just a feeling but then…it became more real. I heard steps, I could hear him, Baekhyun.”

What his aunt was saying was something that he knew very well.

“ But you already know what I’m talking about, don’t you?” she suddenly asked.

“ When you were a kid I understood that you were like me, that you could see things that others didn’t. Did you see him too?”

Was she right?

“ No, but i…felt him and heard him.”

“ But you saw the painting, didn’t you?”

The painting, the one with that beautiful man.

“ Is that…..”

She nodded.

“ The first time I saw him it was a week after your uncle disappeared. Every night, when Kyungsoo fell asleep, I went out looking for him, even if the police told me to give up, I couldn’t. I had never been afraid of the wood, I knew it very well, I also knew that the creatures I could see would have never hurt me. I think Kyungsoo brought you to the lake, today, so I was there, I was exhausted and I wanted to take a break sitting on a rock and I saw him.”

The same place where that day he heard a voice, he heard him.

“ At first I thought it was a boy, even if I got scared of the fact that such a young boy was there, in the wood, in the middle of the night. He was half-naked and he was laying on the edge of the lake, playing with the water with a hand. The more I stared at him, the more I was realizing that he wasn’t human, first of all, he was too beautiful, Baekhyun, I can’t describe his beauty, it’s something so unreal! Then I saw it, the tail, a white fox tail was swinging between his legs and then his back, it looked like a tree!”

“Were you scared?”

He thought what he would have done, or thought, if he would have been there instead of his aunt.

Scared, but also fascinated. Would have he run away or stayed?

“ Yes, because it was something that I have never seen, something that I didn’t know, but at the same time I was attracted by him. I wanted to get closer, I wanted to touch that back, his soft tail, but there was a voice inside my head that was telling me to follow my instinct and my instinct was telling me to run because that creature was dangerous and ancient!”

That was what he felt too.

“ But what is he?”

“ I ran away that night and I’m sure he saw me, I was so scared that he was following me, but for I don’t know what reason, he left me go away. I couldn’t stop thinking about him, I thought that maybe it was a hallucination, that is why I started to paint him, but while doing it I realized that all the details were so clear in my mind because I had really seen him. One day a woman came here, she wanted to buy one of my paintings and while I was showing her my finished ones, she saw that. I forgot to cover it and she looked at me, shocked, as if she had seen a ghost.”

“ Did she know that creature too?”

She nodded.

“ Very well, because her mother summoned him here.”

“ What? What do you mean?”

“ She told me that her old mother is what people would call a witch, but it’s not that she has powers, she just believes in an ancient religion and she believes in nature. She saw that people didn’t care about this wood anymore, a place that she loved, she was suffering seeing it mistreated like that, so she prayed. She prayed to mother nature to send here a guardian.”

“ Him?”

“ Norwegians call them huldrekalls, they protect woods. He must have heard the prayer, the request of protection for this wood and he came here.”

“ So if he protects the wood, he’s good, right?”

“ Those creatures are never good or bad, they’re just themselves, they follow their nature. Huldrekalls usually do not interact with humans unless they’re doing something bad at the wood or unless they’re bored.”

“ What happens if they’re bored?” he asked, a little bit scared of the answer.

“ They seduce humans, they….have sex with them and if they do not satisfy them, well they kill them, if someone is lucky enough to satisfy their needs they let the human go or they make the human their consort.”

“ Wow.”

“ At least this is what legends say, but….your uncle was not the only one who disappeared from this wood.”

“ You think it’s that creature’s fault?”

“ Yes, Baekhyun but I hope to be wrong. This is why I don’t want you to go into the wood, do you understand me? Do you believe me?”

“ Yes, aunt, I believe you, because i…well I didn’t see him but I know he’s out there, I know it was him, chasing me.”

“ Then you absolutely do not have to go there again, Baekhyun, if he showed interest in you, it’s very dangerous, ok? Promise me.”

“ I promise, but…Kyungsoo?”

“ He’s a very good boy but he will never understand this, he can’t see and he won’t believe, I don’t blame him, so you have to protect him, ok?”

He nodded.

“ Now I let you sleep, thank you for listening to me Baekhyun.”

He smiled at her.

He wasn’t even hungry anymore, but he felt bad not eating the food his aunt brought him.

How could such a creature exist? Did he really have the sight as his aunt?

Was that creature the reason why his uncle disappeared?

So many questions, so many crazy things.

He laughed at himself when he tried to fall asleep that night, how could he? He was scared of the nightmares he could have.


	6. Chapter six

_He was at the lake, he was with Kyungsoo, they were talking and laughing, he was having fun._

_“ Count how many minutes I can resist!” challenged him his cousin before going underwater._

_“ Wow Kyungsoo, you’re very good at it!” he exclaimed when he saw he was re-emerging after a few minutes._

_But that person wasn’t Kyungsoo._

_It was him._

_He wanted to scream, to run away, but he couldn’t. He was there, staring at him._

_“ Baekhyun” he whispered._

_His voice._

_Instead of running away, he was going towards him, he was answering his call._

_He wanted him, he really wanted him._

_“ Do you want me?”_

_He nodded._

_“ Even if that would mean death for you?_

_He nodded again and the creature smirked._

_“ Then come here human, I will make you feel good before killing you, trust me.”_

_He wanted it, he was ready to die, or maybe he thought that because he was under a kind of spell, but it didn’t matter. He had accepted his destiny, he was between his arms, the creature was leaning on him to kiss him._

_“ I’m going to devour you.”_

_Suddenly his mouth became wider and wider, a line of sharp teeth appeared._

He woke up.

“ Shit” he exclaimed

That was the worst but most beautiful nightmare he had ever had.

He couldn’t forget what his aunt told him, he couldn’t ignore the fact that in the wood there were those creatures, that in the wood there was him, but he couldn’t let him influence his life.

He existed, he was a powerful and ancient guardian of the wood who probably had kidnapped and killed humans, he was out there, but he couldn’t hurt him unless he went into the wood. He was safe there.

Was he?

He took a shower to wash the nightmare away and went into the kitchen where there were his aunt and Kyungsoo talking together.

He smiled, he was happy they were back to normality.

“ Did you sleep?” asked his aunt and he knew that she meant.

He nodded, lying.

“ Baekhyun, today I will have to leave, I have some things to do at the university, a professor called me asking me if I can help him with a research.”

“ That is great!”

“ Yes, but I will leave soon and I will come back this evening, I’m sorry I can’t keep you company today!”

“ Don’t worry, I will have no distraction while studying” he said winking at him.

“ Ah so am I a distraction?” he asked laughing.

“ Baekhyun, I will be in my room painting, if you need me, come without problems” said his aunt before leaving him alone in the kitchen, with his books.

Focusing on those boring books was not easy, especially when he couldn’t stop thinking about his nightmare. He still could remember his touch, his voice, he could remember how he was ready to die to have him.

Did that creature take his uncle away? His aunt was pretty sure about it.

He shivered thinking at the chances he had to take him too, but why didn’t he? At the end the first time he was in the wood he was alone, why didn’t he take him?

Or even at the lake, he was so close, he knew that he was right behind him, didn’t he take him because of Kyungsoo? He was sure that if that creature wanted something he took it, so maybe he wasn’t interested in him as his aunt said.

It was one of those very sudden thoughts that immediately disappear, but for a second thinking that creature wasn’t really interested in him, made him feel sad.

He knew it was an insane thought but thinking that such an ancient and powerful creature was interested in him made him feel good.

What would his ex have thought knowing that a supernatural creature was interested in him? Would have he been jealous?

“ God Baekhyun, you’re pathetic” he told himself.

Who cared about that bastard, he had to forget him, it was over. He thought he was loved and wanted, but he was just used.

Maybe that was why the thought of being wanted by such a special creature made him feel good, even if that meant death.

“ Oh, are you still studying?” his aunt appeared in the kitchen, she had some paint on her clothes.

“ Yes” he lied, because even if he had the books open in front of him he couldn’t study, his mind was too distracted.

“ But what time is it?”

“ Almost seven.”

“ Kyungsoo isn’t back yet? Did he text you?”

“ No, why? Should he be here now?”

“ Yes, his university closes at six, so usually at seven he’s here, well maybe he found someone to chat with while coming home, he’ll be here soon” she said as if she was trying to comfort herself.

Minutes passed, it was almost eight when his aunt worriedly asked him: “ Baekhyun, can you please call your cousin?”

He called him, but it was like Kyungsoo had turned his phone off.

“ Maybe he has a bad signal.”

“ Yes, maybe.”

An hour passed.

“ Baekhyun, I’m worried” she exclaimed and he had to admit that he was too.

Kyungsoo was not the type to arrive late and he knew that he could have not found someone to talk with while coming home because sadly he had no friends.

“ I’m sure he’s fine, but maybe we can walk toward him” he suggested.

“ You mean going into the wood?”

“ If you don’t feel to, I’ll go, don’t worry aunt!”

“ Will you, Baekhyun?”

He nodded.

“ Baekhyun, never leave the path and if you hear something, run? Ok? Run as fast as you can and never look back, never let anything distract you.”

“ I will be careful, don’t worry”

Now that he was there, alone, in the wood, with just the torch of his phone, he was regretting having volunteered, but he was also worried about Kyungsoo. Probably he was just being late, but in his mind worst scenarios appeared.

Thinking about his cousin gave him courage and he started to walk, following the path.

His hope was seeing his cousin appearing in front of him, but the more he walked the more he lost his hopes. At a certain point, he arrived at the road, where the path ended and where his cousin always parked his car. The car was there!

But where Kyungsoo was?

He knew that he didn’t have to leave the path, and he had no reason to do it, so where did he go?

“ Kyungsoo where are you?”

Did he have to go back to his aunt to tell her that he didn’t find his son? How could he say such a thing to a woman that had already lost his husband?

He didn’t have the courage to do that, he preferred to deal with the wood.

The wood, maybe Kyungsoo was out there lost or hurt.

Or maybe…

No.

His cousin was alive, he just had to find him.


	7. Chapter seven

He knew very well that leaving the path was the worst idea ever, not only because he knew what there was out there, but also because he didn’t know the wood, he would have got lost without doubts. But there he was, wandering around the wood, alone, at night, looking for his cousin.

“ My mum was right, I’m an idiot” he said when he almost tripped because of some roots.

He didn’t know what he was doing, he didn’t have a destination, he just wanted to find Kyungsoo and leave that place as soon as possible.

“ Kyungsoo!” he said.

He didn’t want to scream, he didn’t dare to interrupt that silence or to let someone know he was there.

_Crack_

_Crack_

He froze.

The sound of branches being broken.

An animal, an animal walking.

That was what every normal person would have thought, but he knew. He knew that in that wood animals were not the only inhabitants.

He walked faster.

_Crack_

_Crack_

A breath.

Run, he could hear his aunt screaming him to run and he did it.

He started to run, without even looking where he was going, he had to go back to the path and at home, immediately, but he had no idea of where he was.

In that moment he couldn’t think, he just ran, aware that someone was following him.

He had never run that fast and he had never been that scared. He knew against what he was fighting, he knew that the chances to get away were few, he couldn’t run away, but he had to try.

Probably in that moment of panic his mind brought him to a place that he knew and without even realizing it he found himself near the lake, too far away from the path.

He was doomed.

A rock, a little rock, he didn’t see it and he fell.

During the fall he lost his phone, it was now too far away from him, even if he couldn’t see well he knew that in front of him there was something, but he didn’t dare to look up, instead, he closed his eyes.

“ Do it, come on, just kill me” he said, his voice was shaking.

He would have never thought to die like that, but maybe being killed by a woods guardian, a supernatural and ancient creature, was the right way to leave that world, it wasn’t a boring way.

He just hoped they would have found his body.

He was ready.

He closed his eyes and took a deep breath, he hoped it would have not hurt.

A laugh.

Wait, was someone laughing?

Yes, he was sure of that. He could clearly hear someone laughing.

“ Killing you? No, that is not how I do it, human.”

That voice. Could a voice sound so melodic? So seductive?

“ Open your eyes.”

No, he couldn’t let him win.

“ Come on human, I know you want to see me, I know you’re curious, don’t you want to look at me?”

Yes, he wanted to look.

“ Baekhyun, look at me.”

“ How do you know my name?”

“ I have ears everywhere in this wood, human.”

“ Why haven’t you killed me yet? Ah right, you’re going to have sex with me first and then if I don’t satisfy you’ll kill me.”

“ What?”

That laugh again. It was so beautiful to listen to. He wanted to see him laughing.

He opened an eye, just one.

He saw a man, a beautiful man, laughing, his eyes looked like a crescent moon while his cheeks kept moving while he was giggling. He wanted more, he had to see everything.

He finally opened his eyes.

When he saw him in his aunt’s painting he thought that he was beautiful, but now that he was looking at him in real life, he couldn’t even close his mouth.

“ You opened your eyes, great, so now you can look at me while I laugh at the thing you’ve just said.”

He looked so human.

“ You look so…human.”

He thought to have said that in his mind, but he realized to have talked out loud when he looked at him, he had stopped laughing.

“ A human? Did you look at me well?”

He turned around.

He was exactly like in the painting, like his aunt described him.

He was wearing a very thin shirt, under it he could see his back, it was of a strange color, like brown and grey, and it looked exactly like bark and then there was the tail. It was a foxtail, but it was white.

“ Are you scared, human?”

Yes, no.

He was terrified, he knew what he was looking at, but at the same time, he couldn’t believe what his eyes were seeing.

“ I’m sure you’re terrified, aren’t you?”

He was slowly walking towards him, Baekhyun understood how an animal felt in a trap.

“ For being a human you’re quite…good” he said, staring at him, from head to toes.

“ Anyway, you shouldn’t be here, I’m sure your lovely aunt told you not to walk around the wood, there are creatures out here.”

“ I-I’m looking for my cousin.”

“ Kyungsoo?” he asked surprised.

“ Do not act surprise, I know you took him and-”

“ And had sex with him but he didn’t satisfy me so I killed him?”

He was shaking.

“ You’re a fucking monster!”

“ And you’re very stupid! Do you really think I took your cousin?”

“ And my uncle and many other people.”

“ You’re hurting my feelings, human.”

“ As if you have feelings”

The other laughed.

“ You don’t know anything about me, Baekhyun. I didn’t take your cousin or your uncle, but…”

“ But?”

“ I know who did it.”

“ You’re lying.”

“ Creatures like me can’t lie, Baekhyun, it’s our law.”

“ Do you want to stay there on the ground?” he suddenly asked.

Right, he hadn’t stood up since he fell, but he wasn’t sure his legs worked.

“ I’m not going to eat you, Baekhyun, haven’t you understood it yet? if I wanted to hurt you or play with you, you would be already dead or naked, believe me.”

Maybe he wanted to comfort him, with those words, but the fact that he reminded him that he could do all that to him, just terrified him even more.

“ You can’t lie right?”

The creature nodded.

He slowly stood up and took a few steps away from the huldrekall, who smirked.

“ I’m sure your aunt told you something about me, she saw me.”

“ She told me you’re a guardian of the wood, you answered to a woman’s prayer who wanted to save this place and since you came here people began to disappear. Creatures like you seduce humans and …”

“ And here we go again with the sex story. Anyway, you’re right, well kind of. I’m a guardian of woods, yes, I was called here by that woman, but not only and anyway all that story, about killing humans if they don’t satisfy me, is not true. I don’t have sex with humans, because I’m sure they can’t satisfy me.”

Oh.

“ Do not look that disappointed, human” he said smirking.

“ What? I’m not, i…“ he was blushing.

He was ashamed of himself, how could he blush in such a moment?

“ You said to know who took my cousin and my uncle.”

“ Your cousin, yes, your uncle….he’s dead.”

He knew it, unlike his aunt he lost his hope time ago, he knew they would have never found him alive again, but hearing it, it still hurt him.

“ But you can still save your cousin.”

“ Who has him? Tell me!”

“ Why? Do you think you can save him? He’s too strong, even for me.”

“ He? Is he the other reason why you came here?”

He nodded.

“ What is he? Is he like you?”

“He’s a wendigo.”

“ A what?”

“ He was human like you, once. He was a hunter, a great one, till one winter he went back to his tribe without food, it wasn’t his fault because no pray could run away from him but that winter was very cold and a lot of animals died because of that. His tribe was so disappointed by him because that meant starving, so they condemned him to leave the tribe and live alone in the wood.”

“ But how could he survive if he couldn’t find animals to eat?”

“ He spent months going around, alone, looking for food and places where to sleep, while rage and revenge grew inside him, till he became crazy. One night he attacked his own village, he killed everyone, even his own family and he ate them. That is the beginning of the transformation into a wendigo, an awful creature that eats humans.”

“ Was he already here? “

“ Yes, but he was sleeping, a shaman put a sleep spell on him to make him sleep forever, centuries ago, but someone woke him up and now he’s hungrier than ever.”

He had no idea how a wendigo looked, but he was sure it was a terrible creature and knowing that such a thing killed and ate his uncle and now had his cousin, he needed to sit down before passing out. He looked around and sat on the nearer rock.

“ As you said I’m a guardian of woods, I protect the wood and everything that lives in him, including humans. I don’t kill humans unless they attack me or they’re hurting the wood. I felt that something evil was here, I felt when he woke up and then I heard that woman’s prayer, so I came here.”

“ So you…you’re here to protect us, not to kill us.”

He nodded.

“ Did you follow me?”

Please say yes he thought, because thinking that the wendigo was the one following him was too scary.

“ The day you arrived, I scented you, I understood you were a relative of Kyungsoo, I know the smell of your family very well. I was curious, so I followed you.”

“ You scared the shit out of me.”

“ I know, I saw you running” he said laughing.

“ But…the other times, at the lake, it wasn’t me, Baekhyun. He was there, he was watching you, that is why I went so near you.”

“ You called me.”

“ Yes, I wanted to warn you, but I didn’t know how, I didn’t want to scare you and I didn’t want to make the wendigo focus even more on you.”

He was protecting him. For all that time he thought that he was following him to kill him, but he was trying to protect him from the wendigo.

“ T-thank you and I’m so sorry for what I told you.”

He looked very surprised.

“ No one has ever thanked me” he whispered, he was probably talking to himself.

“ You better go now, Baekhyun, your aunt will be very worried.”

“ But my cousin!”

“ I’ll look for him, I will bring him back to you, but you have to go now, you can’t defeat a wendigo, if he catches you won’t be able to help Kyungsoo.”

He was right.

He stood up and looked around, the wood was now even scarier, knowing that such a horrible and evil creature was out there, eating humans.

“ I will be right behind you, go, I won’t let him take you.”

That morning when he woke up he would have never thought that something like that was going to happen to him.

First, his cousin disappearing, then meeting a huldrekall, talking to him and discovering that he wasn’t evil but he was protecting him from a monster that killed his uncle and took his cousin.

And now he was walking home, to tell his aunt he still didn’t know what, while a huldrekall was following him, to protect him from a wendigo.

“ Ehm…do you have a name?” he suddenly asked.

He was behind him, he could hear him, he could feel his presence.

“ You can call me Chanyeol.”

That was the last thing they told to each other, they walked in silence. At every sound, Baekhyun froze, but knowing that Chanyeol was there with him comforted him. The same creature that till a few hours before scared him to death, was now the only one that could protect him.

He could finally see the garden around the house. He was happy to have arrived, but now the hardest part arrived. What would have he said to his aunt?

He turned around to say goodbye to Chanyeol, but he wasn’t looking at him, he was looking around, sniffing the air.

“ Is there something wrong?”

“ He’s here”


	8. Chapter eight

Baekhyun’s heart stopped beating for a moment.

“W-what do you mean?”

“ Shshshs.”

He stopped talking, he stopped moving, he was ready to even stop breathing, he was terrified.

Then a scream.

“ Aunt!”

He could hear Chanyeol telling him not to move, to stay there, but he couldn’t, as soon as he heard his aunt screaming he started to run toward the house.

He would have never forgotten what there was in front of him.

Her aunt was in the kitchen, she was terrified, she was blocked in a corner, while in front of her there was the wendigo. The kitchen stinked of death and decomposition.

When the wendigo looked at him his legs shacked, they didn’t work anymore, he was going to fall. His eyes were black, he had thin lips that didn’t cover his sharp teeth, they were dirty, he didn’t want to know of what, but he was sure to see blood around his mouth.

“ Baekhyun, run!” screamed his aunt.

“ B-but.”

Suddenly he felt something next to him, he turned his head and Chanyeol was there.

He looked at him and he understood why legends talked about him like a divine creature. He released power, Baekhyun was almost intoxicated by it and his face changed. He was still beautiful but almost in a terrifying way, it was like he was ready to kill.

“ Leave her” he said. Even his voice changed, it made him shiver.

The wendigo looked at him, he was sure that he was laughing at him.

One second he was there and the second after he ran away, with his aunt who kept screaming till they were too far away to be heard.

“ He’s too fast, that bastard” exclaimed Chanyeol.

“ He took her. He has my aunt and my cousin” he said before falling on the floor, his legs really stopped working.

He was surprised to see Chanyeol kneeling next to him

“ Are you ok human?”

“ No, I’m not” he answered, starting to cry.

What could he do? Calling the police? No, he couldn’t, Chanyeol was the only one who could help him.

If the wendigo hadn’t killed them yet.

He couldn’t stop crying.

“ Baekhyun, calm down, look at me.”

Chanyeol was looking at him with a tender gaze, he was so different from the gaze he had with the wendigo.

“ There is still hope, wendigos like to have a reserve of food, they’re still alive.”

“ Maybe for now.”

“I will help you Baekhyun. My duty is protecting woods and who lives in there, your family is part of this wood, I will do whatever I can to save them.”

“ You can’t lie, right?” he asked, cleaning his face with his own shirt.

“ I can’t lie, Baekhyun, you’re right.”

“ I want to help you, I know I’m just a human, but I can’t stay at home doing nothing, I can’t.”

“ I won’t stop you, you’re aware of the risk, but not now. Wendigos can see in the dark, they’re fast, you can’t, so it’s better if you sleep now, you’ve had a rough night.”

“ As if I can sleep.”

“ At least try, Baekhyun, I will be out there, I will watch over this house, nothing will enter, I promise you.”

When Chanyeol left the house he reached his room and still with his clothes on he fell on the bed.

He was exhausted, but he couldn’t sleep, he was afraid of closing his eyes and seeing that monster again.

A monster that ate humans and that had his aunt and cousin.

If they were still alive.

Yes, they had to be, he had to think that they were alive and that with the help of Chanyeol he would have saved them.

Chanyeol.

That day he had met a wendigo, but he also saw and talked with a huldrekall. He had seen him in his aunt’s panting, he had imagined him even better after her words, but what he thought about him was all wrong.

He wasn’t evil, he might be scary because he was powerful and ancient, but he was a beautiful creature, with also an honorable purpose. But was he strong enough to help him to get his family back?

He kept changing his position, he couldn’t sleep, he still could hear his aunt’s screams and the smell of death of the wendigo.

He stood up and looked out of the window. The world now seemed scarier knowing there were creatures like that.

Suddenly he saw something moving in the garden, his heart stopped beating, was the wendigo back? Maybe to take him too?

He looked better and he saw Chanyeol, who probably felt he was looking at him and stared him back, making him blush.

“ Baekhyun don’t!” he said himself, while quickly turning his back to the window.

Chanyeol was beautiful, he felt like that because as a human he wasn’t used to such a beauty, that’s all.

Even if his head was full of nightmares his body was too tired and finally, after a few hours, he fell asleep.


	9. Chapter nine

_He was there, in that room, on that bed. He was naked and Chanyeol was between his legs._

_His hands were pulling his soft long hair, while the hudrekall was sucking him, so good that he knew he couldn’t last any longer._

_“ Chanyeol” he moaned._

_He had closed his eyes since Chanyeol’s lips wrapped around his cock, but suddenly he felt that they weren’t alone anymore._

_That death smell._

_He opened his eyes and he saw the wendigo, he was there, in the room, looking at them. His mouth was dirty with blood._

_“ Chanyeol!” he screamed but it was like the other didn’t realize that the wendigo was there._

_“ Chanyeol, he’s here!” he screamed again, trying to push Chanyeol away, but when he finally stopped what he was doing, it was too late._

_The last thing he remembered before waking up was Chanyeol’s blood all over him._

_Silver blood._

When he opened his eyes he almost had a heart attack. Chanyeol was there, sat on the edge of his bed, staring at him.

“ What the hell are you doing here?” he asked scared.

“ Sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you but I heard you screaming my name, I thought you were in danger but when I opened the door I realized you were sleeping, I guess it was just a bad dream.”

Yes, one of the worst he had ever had.

“ You should eat something, human” he said, leaving the bed.

He was at the door when he turned around.

“ Before screaming my name, you were moaning it, so I guess that maybe the nightmare didn’t start in a bad way” he said smirking, before leaving.

He changed his clothes and still with red cheeks because of Chanyeol’s words, after having washed his face with very cold water he went downstairs, Chanyeol was waiting for him in the kitchen.

“ Do you want something to eat?” he asked.

“ I don’t eat human’s food, but thank you.”

“ So what’s the plan?” he asked while drinking his coffee.

“ During the day the wendigo is weaker, the plan is finding his nest, hoping that Kyungsoo and your aunt are still there, alive, and taking them away.”

“ Perfect, let’s go then” he said drinking his last sip of coffee.

“ Wait, Baekhyun.”

“ Please do not tell me not to come to come with you because it’s too dangerous, you know that you won’t stop me, they’re my family.”

“ I know, but I can’t let you die so, if things become dangerous, if the wendigo is there, you need to run and let me take care of him. Promise me that if I tell you to run, you run, leaving me or even your family behind.”

“ I promise.”

Chanyeol stared at him, for a while. He felt so naked under that gaze.

“ Then let’s go.”

It was so strange how the wood changed with the sunlight, if he didn’t know that a creature such as the wendigo was out there, he would have thought that it was such a nice, safe place, where you could take your family and kids for a picnic.

“ How does a wendigo’s nest look alike?” he asked while he was looking around, following Chanyeol.

From there he could see his tail and back. It was true that those were the only things that not made him look like a human, but Baekhyun was sure that even without that back and the foxtail Chanyeol couldn’t look human, he was too beautiful, his aura was too strong. He was sure that there was a time where he was worshipped as a god and he couldn’t blame those humans. 

“ Wendigos like places that remind a grave. So something cold, dark and also stinky. Usually, they dig a kind of hole where they go to sleep and they hide their food in a cave or in a tree, near the hole.“

Chanyeol was still talking, explaining to him other things about wendigos, but he had stopped.

He was staring at a big tree, but there was something strange about it. Right in front of it the soil looked strange, as if someone moved it, then the smell. He knew that smell.

“ Baekhyun, where are you going?”

He was walking toward the tree, it was so big that it took him almost a minute to walk around it, discovering what the tree was hiding. The trunk with its long braches formed a sort of cavern, there, on the floor, there were his aunt and cousin.

He was going to scream their names when Chanyeol put a hand on his mouth.

“ Be quiet, Baekhyun! Did you see there? The wendigo is probably under that, sleeping, if you don’t wake him up we have a chance!”

He was right, he needed to be less impulsive.

He calmed down, even if his heart was beating as it had never done.

“ Stay behind me, the wendigo might be under there or not, so..” said Chanyeol walking toward his family.

“ Are they…..”

He couldn’t even finish the sentence, he was so scared.

“ No, I can hear them breathing. The wendigo can make people sleep with a poison that he has in his teeth, so they’re just sleeping, we have to quickly wake them up and leave this place” he said while keeping looking around.

The smell was nauseating.

He kneeled beside Kyungsoo and his aunt.

“ Kyungsoo, aunt” he whispered.

He didn’t want to make noise, but he had to wake them up before the wendigo arrived.

“ Kyungsoo, aunt, it’s me, Baekhyun!” he repeated while gently touching them.

“ Chanyeol!” he whispered, desperately.

The other kneeled next to him and put a hand on their head.

“ Call them again.”

“ Kyungsoo, aunt, it’s me Baekhyun.”

Suddenly Kyungsoo opened his eyes and a few seconds later his aunt too.

“ Baekhyun!” he could hear the terror in his cousin’s voice.

“ I’m here, I’m here Kyungsoo!”

“ Baekhyun, what are you doing here? What was that thing?” his aunt’s voice was shaking.

“ I’ll tell you everything but now we have to go!”

Finally, they saw Chanyeol behind Baekhyun.

“ You!” said his aunt.

“ Yes, it’s me.”

“ He’s with me aunt, he’s good, he’s helping us!”

“ He’s the one that killed your uncle, he’s a monster!”

“ No aunt, he’s helping us, the wendigo, that creature that took you, he’s the real monster and we have to leave before he arrives.”

He helped his aunt to stand up and then they were finally out of that tree.

“ Go ahead, I will cover you back” exclaimed Chanyeol.

He did it, they saved Kyungsoo and his aunt, he couldn’t believe it! He was so happy that he didn’t notice that the death scent was stronger and stronger.

He knew what he would have seen before turning his head.

The wendigo was emerging from his hole in the ground, like a skeleton zombie, ready to hunt his prey.

“ Run, Baekhyun, run, bring them home!” suddenly said Chanyeol.

“ Run away with us, Chanyeol you told me that he’s too strong, run away now!” he said worried, looking at the monster and then at Chanyeol.

“ He’s destroying my wood, he keeps killing people in the wood, I have to stop him, run now, you promise me you would have listened to me!”

“ But-“

“ Baekhyun, he knows what he’s doing!” said his aunt, grabbing his arm.

He didn’t want to leave him, but he knew he had to, he promised it.

He started to run, he turned his back just before seeing the wendigo jumping on Chanyeol.

He ran, hand in hand with his aunt and Kyungsoo, they ran so fast that he felt his throat on fire, but the adrenaline helped him, till they finally arrived inside the house. Once there, they closed everything, blocking the door with a table.

Then they collapsed exhausted on the floor.

“ You came for us!” said his cousin, he could see tears in his eyes.

He hugged him.

“ Of course I came, I couldn’t leave you!”

“ You’re crazy Baekhyun, it was dangerous!” scolded him his aunt.

“ I was with Chanyeol!”

“ He…He’s not human, Baekhyun.”

“ And so what? You taught me that in this world there is more than we know and not everything is evil, Chanyeol is not evil.”

“ I believe you Baekhyun but stop worrying too much about him, he’s strong, he knows what he’s doing.”

To distract him his aunt asked him to tell everything and so he told her about Chanyeol, why he was there and about the wendigo.

“ So it’s him, that monster killed my dad” said Kyungsoo.

“ And he was going to kill us too if you didn’t save us.”

“ Chanyeol saved you” he said.

Hours passed, the sun left the place to the moon. Silence, no sound from outside.

He couldn’t stay like that, he couldn’t spend another hour like that, inside the house, not knowing what happened to Chanyeol.

“ I go to look for him” he suddenly said.

“ What? Are you crazy? What if…” said his aunt.

“ I need to know what happened, maybe he needs my help!”

“ Baekhyun!”

“ Aunt, please, I need to go to him.”

“ Did he…do something to you?”

“ What? No, he didn’t do anything, it’s me, ok? Please”

He was begging her.

“ Please be careful, Baekhyun, if before the night ends you haven’t come back, we will come for you.”


	10. Chapter ten

His mum sent him there to study, he accepted because he thought that place also would have helped him to forget him.

He was right, his mum was wrong, because since he got there he had not studied that much, but he finally forgot him.

After what he saw, after knowing that such creatures existed, it was like all that drama disappeared.

After Chanyeol too.

Everyone would have been attracted to him, it was inevitable.

But would everyone have been ready to risk their lives to save a creature like Chanyeol? Because even if while he was walking deeper and deeper in the wood he tried not to think about it, he knew that what he was doing was dangerous.

What if the wendigo was still around?

That would have meant that Chanyeol was dead and that soon he would have been dead too.

“ Where am I even going?” he asked himself.

Before realizing where he was walking to he found himself near the lake, but he had to reach the wendigo’s nest, he had to go there, to find out what had happened. He was turning his back when he saw something near the lake.

“ Chanyeol!”

He ran towards the huldrekall as soon as he realized that it was him.

Chanyeol was laying on the ground, he was covered in blood.

“ Oh my god, don’t die!”

Chanyeol opened his eyes and even if it must hurt, he started to laugh.

“This is not all my blood, human.”

“ You’re alive!”

“ Yes, just had a rough day.”

“ The wendigo?”

“ He’s wounded, he’s very weak.”

“ But he’s not dead.”

It wasn’t over yet.

“ You’re wounded too Chanyeol!” he said worriedly looking at him.

“ I was reaching the lake, I need a bath.”

“ Do you need a bath? You need to be cured!”

“ Baekhyun, have you forgotten that I’m not human? Water will be fine, believe me, I heal fast, just help me to get into the water.”

Helping someone as tall as Chanyeol to stand up was not easy, but he managed to get him till the lake.

Once in the water, Chanyeol started to take his clothes off, taking him by surprise.

“ No layers between me and the water, I will heal faster, don’t be shy, Baekhyun” he said with a smirk.

Beautiful.

That was what he thought when he saw Chanyeol’s naked body in the water.

He really looked like a god.

“ Baekhyun, the water is perfect” he suddenly said.

Was he inviting him to join him into the water?

“ Even if you’re human water has healing energy, it helps the body but also the mind, I think that after today you’d need some help from the water.”

After that day he really needed a relaxing bath, even if being there with Chanyeol naked, was not that relaxing.

He took his shirt and pants off and with his underwear on he jumped into the water.

It felt so good.

He had just closed his eyes for a moment, enjoying the water, and when he opened them he realized how close Chanyeol was to him.

“ Why are you here?”

“ You asked me to join you in the water” he answered confused.

“ No I mean, why did you come for me?”

“ I was worried, I didn’t know if you were alive or the wendigo killed you, maybe you needed my help”

“ You were worried? You thought that I needed your help?”

He was embarrassed because probably Chanyeol was laughing at him.

“ I know, I’m an idiot. How could I think that someone like you needed help from a human?”

“ Yes, you’re an idiot.”

“ My mum also thinks that I’m an idiot ”he sighed playing with water.

Chanyeol was now in front of him, he had never been that close to him.

“ But you’re a courageous idiot, Baekhyun. You’re a human, and still, you didn’t hesitate to come looking for me, knowing that it was dangerous, knowing that maybe I could have been dead and you would have had to deal with that monster alone.”

“ So are you insulting me or…”

Chanyeol laughed.

“ I admire you Baekhyun a lot and…”

When he felt his big hand on his cheek, he shivered. Just in that moment, he was realizing how much he craved for that touch.

“ No one has ever worried about me.”

“ How does it make you feel?” he asked curiously.

“ Good, Baekhyun and I want to feel like that again, is that a selfish thing?”

“ No, it’s a human thing, actually.”

They both laughed.

“ You’re so beautiful, Baekhyun.”

“ I’m sure you saw more beautiful things, Chanyeol, I’m just a ….human.”

“ That is what makes you even more beautiful and no one has ever looked at me like you do.”

“ You’re like a god Chanyeol, everyone must have looked at you with admiration.”

“ There was a time when I showed myself to humans but…they ran in fear or they believed at that stupid legend. They thought that if they had sex with me and they could satisfy me they could have immense knowledge and richness from me.”

“ And wasn’t that true?”

“ Do you want to find it out?”

Their faces were so close and Chanyeol’s hands were on his hips, pulling him toward him.

“ Could they?”

“ What?”

“ Has a human ever satisfied you?”

Chanyeol laughed.

“ Do you want to find out if a human can satisfy you?”


	11. Chapter eleven

He didn’t know if it was because Chanyeol was an huldrekall, or because he hadn’t been kissed for a while, but as soon as their mouths crashed together he felt like an electrical wave going through his body.

“ Honey, you’re sweet as honey” exclaimed Chanyeol, biting Baekhyun’s lip.

“ Chanyeol” he whispered.

He felt so vulnerable, he was scared of that because the last time he felt like that, he suffered a lot.

“ I won’t make you suffer” exclaimed Chanyeol, surprising him.

“ Can you read minds too?”

Chanyeol smiled and kissed him.

“ No, but I can understand a lot of a person from a kiss. Since you chose to share such an intimate thing like a kiss with me, I can feel you, in every possible way, and I can feel that you suffered, because of someone.”

Baekhyun instinctively hugged Chanyeol harder.

“ I don’t want to suffer like that again, Chanyeol, please.”

The huldrekall cupped his face with both his hands.

“ I want to make you feel good, Baekhyun, I’m here for you.”

“ Can you make me forget?”

Chanyeol was kissing his neck, his sensitive neck.

“ I’m sorry Baekhyun, I don’t have that power, I can’t delete your past, but I can give you new good memories.”

Baekhyun kissed him, holding on him as if he was afraid to drown.

“Please yes”

While Chanyeol kept kissing him, he was touching him, exploring every inch of his body.

He was caressing his back, his bark back. It was strange, but it wasn’t rough as he thought.

His hand slipped down and down.

“ You can touch it, the tail, if you want.”

Yes, he wanted to touch it since he saw him in his aunt’s painting.

Without interrupting the kiss he touched it. It was so soft.

“ You’re so beautiful, Chanyeol.”

“ You look at me like a god, Baekhyun, but I’m not.”

Baekhyun’s hand kept moving, from his tail to his thighs, between his legs.

“ A god, literally” he exclaimed, feeling his erection in his hand and making the other laugh.

“ I won’t hurt you Baekhyun, I would never do it.”

“ I know, I trust you.”

When Chanyeol pulled him closer to him and their lower bodies touched he couldn’t help but let out a moan.

Chanyeol was driving him crazy just with his kisses and touches, but when he felt it, dangerously near to his hole, he knew that if he didn’t hold on to him his legs would have not helped him.

While he was teasing him with a finger, he caressed one of his thighs with the other hand, lifting his leg up, around his waist.

“ Do you feel it better like this?” he asked while slowing putting a finger inside him.

“ Yes!” he screamed, so loud that he was ashamed of himself.

“ Shshs, do you want to wake all the animals of the wood up?” he exclaimed with a smirk, kissing him.

He was lost. Lost in pleasure and he didn’t want to find the way back to real life anymore. Maybe that was a dream.

Maybe it was all happening in his head.

Maybe he was in his bed and he was dreaming that. He had dreamt of an adventure in the wood, with his cousin. He was dreaming of being at the lake, with a supernatural creature that was making him cry for pleasure.

“ Put your legs around my waist human and hold on me” he whispered in his ear.

Maybe he was dreaming of having his arms around that creature’s neck, he was dreaming that Chanyeol was kissing him while he could feel him slowly going inside him.

Could a dream be that intense?

“ It feels so real” he moaned when he felt Chanyeol moving inside him.

“ This is real, my dear Baekhyun, this is real.”

He didn’t know if it was because of the wood and its peaceful silence or because he was having sex with an huldrekall, but he felt like he was floating, he felt light, happy, he felt so good, he had never thought that it was possible to feel like that.

Chanyeol was touching him, kissing him, hitting the right spot, and he was reaching his limit, he couldn’t last, not anymore.

“ Chanyeol” he moaned while biting his neck not to moan too loudly.

“ I’m here for you”

A scream of pleasure interrupted the wood’s silence, echoing when they both came.

They stayed in silence, Baekhyun still with his arms and legs wrapped around Chanyeol.

He was afraid, he was scared that if he let him go he would have disappeared.

As if Chanyeol could hear his thought, the huldrekall hugged him harder.

“ Legends say that if a human satisfies an huldreakall he will receive great knowledge and they will get married” said Chanyeol.

“ Sir, I’ve just had sex with you and you’re talking about a wedding? Was I that good?”

They both laughed.

“ Yes, it was good Baekhyun, really good” he said kissing him.

“ Thank you Chanyeol, for this beautiful memory.”

“ I know the wendigo is still out there, but don’t talk as if I’m not going to give you more memories like this.”

Baekhyun smiled at him.

“ Will you?”

“ I can’t lie, human.”

He kissed him.

He was so into that moment, into him, that he forgot that he had to go back home before the end of the night.

“ Fuck I need to go before my aunt comes looking for me!”

“ I come with you.”

A human and an huldrekall, walking in the middle of the wood at night, hand in hand.

He was sure that his aunt would have loved to paint that moment.

“ Come with me” exclaimed Baekhyun once in front of the house.

“ I can’t, first of all, I’m pretty sure that your aunt is afraid of me and I have to look for the wendigo, I feel better now, also thanks to you, I have to find him while he’s wounded and weak, this is my chance.”

“ Then I come with you.”

“ No, I won’t let you, Baekhyun, I won’t put you in danger. I’m an huldrekall, I protect the wood, I will end this situation once and for all.”

Baekhyun wanted to cry. He couldn’t lose him.

Chanyeol pulled him in a hug. 

“ I will come back.”

“ You can’t lie, remember.”

He kissed him.

“ I know, now go, I will stay around here for a while to watch over the house till the sun comes up.”

Leaving him was hard, leaving those warm arms and those sweet lips was hard.

Once inside the house, everything was dark and silent.

“ You’re back!” suddenly said his aunt, appearing from the kitchen and hugging him.

“ Kyungsoo is sleeping. How are you? How is…he?”

“ They fought, he was wounded but now he’s better. The wendigo is not dead, yet, but he’s weaker now.”

“ You need to sleep Baekhyun.”

“ You too!”

She smiled.

He was leaving the kitchen when she talked.

“ You have his smell on you, the smell of the wood.”

He blushed.

“ I just hope he’s been good to you.”

“ Yes he is.”


	12. Chapter twelve

How could he sleep?

Was Chanyeol outside the house or was he around the wood looking for the wendigo? Did he find him? Was he ok?

Too many questions that didn’t let him sleep, he needed answers, that meant that he couldn’t stay there, he needed to be out there, with Chanyeol.

He dressed up and trying not to make any noise, he left the room. He had almost reached the front door when someone turned the lights on, scaring him.

“ Baekhyun, are you sure?”

“ Kyungsoo!”

“ He’s not a human, while you? What if the wendigo catches you?” he asked worriedly.

“ He won’t and Chanyeol will protect me.”

“ What if something bad happens to him? Who will protect you?”

“ No, he’s fine, he will be fine, I will help him.”

Kyungsoo sighed.

“ I know I can’t stop you, but at least do not go out there like that, take this.”

In his hand, he had a gun.

“ It was of my father, I think our family has always known that animals are not the only inhabitants of these woods.”

They hugged each other.

“ Please, be careful.”

With a gun in his hand, he left the house.

He didn’t have a plan, he just wanted to find Chanyeol.

He was walking, looking around with the gun ready in his hands when he remembered his mum’s words “ Do not leave the path”.

He laughed.

After ten minutes he had reached the lake, but no one was there.

“ Chanyeol?” he tried to call, but no one answered.

That meant that the huldrekall was around, looking for the monster, or maybe he had already found him.

He needed to hurry up.

Thinking about Chanyeol was his first mistake because he wasn’t carefully looking around anymore.

When he heard the noise, it was too late.

The wendigo was there, in front of him.

“ Shit” he whispered, his voice was shaking.

He saw the wendigo moving, he knew he was fast, but not that fast. He had just pointed the gun toward him when the monster had already reached him and pushed him on the ground.

He was now over him, looking at him like a human would look at some delicious meat.

The wendigo was crushing him, he could feel his claws inside his flesh, it hurt a lot.

He wanted to scream, but the wendigo’s face, his mouth full of sharp dirty teeth, was right in front of his and he was paralyzed.

Was he going to die like that?

He closed his eyes.

“ Leave him alone, you fucking monster.”

He heard a voice screaming and suddenly the wendigo was gone.

“ Baekhyun!”

He opened his eyes, Chanyeol was beside him.

“ Why are you here?”

“ You’re safe!” he whispered.

“ You’re so stupid human and you’re hurt!”

He tried to stand up, but he couldn’t.

“ Your leg is broken Baekhyun and you’re losing a lot of blood from your wounds”

Really?

He looked down at his lower body.

The wendigo wounded his hips, and he couldn’t move his left leg.

The wendigo wasn’t gone, he turned his head and he saw him, Chanyeol just threw him against a tree.

“ I’d tell you to run away but you can’t move, so stay here, let me handle him.”

“ Chanyeol!” he exclaimed, pulling him for a kiss.

“ Come back to me.”

Chanyeol kissed him back.

“ I will.”

He knew Chanyeol was not human, he had touched his back and his tail, but in that moment he was realizing that Chanyeol was a god.

He was moving fast, his body was surrounded by a light and his eyes were completely white.

He was beautiful and powerful.

He heard the two supernatural creatures growling while hitting each other and falling on the ground.

They were both too strong, they would have fought till one of them would have been too tired and weak, but the more they fought the more Baekhyun realized that the one that was getting weaker, was Chanyeol.

He had to do something.

“ Think Baekhyun, prove that you’re not an idiot” he told himself while looking around, till something caught his eyes.

The gun his cousin gave him. When the wendigo attacked him he lost it ad it fell away from him.

He tried to take it, but it was too far away, he had to move, but he couldn’t walk because of his leg, so he started to crawl. The leg hurt like crazy, he was afraid to pass out because of the pain, when he felt the tip of his fingers touching the cold iron of the weapon, he smiled. He could do it.

He had never used a gun, but in that moment he needed to. At first, he thought to shoot at the wendigo, he wasn’t sure if a gun could kill him, at least he would have wounded him, but Chanyeol was too close to the monster and he couldn’t risk to hit him.

The wendigo had just hit Chanyeol who was losing blood from a bite on his arm.

Baekhyun pointed the gun towards the sky and shot.

The shoot echoed in the whole wood, some birds flew from the trees, frightened because of the noise.

The wendigo looked at him, surprised, curious maybe, but a few seconds later he went back to hit Chanyeol again and again.

So he shot in the air, again and again.

“ Come here you motherfucker, I know you want my meat, come here!” he screamed.

“ Here, smell it, do you like it? Do you like the smell of my blood? Come and get me!” he said while pressing one of the wounds, losing even more blood.

It hurt and he felt so weak, almost sleepy, but it worked.

Suddenly the wendigo was running towards him.

In that moment he realized that maybe he would have died, but at least Chanyeol had the chance to kill the monster.

The wendigo was again over him, he could smell his breath of dead, he could feel his claws in his flash.

He closed his eyes, thinking that this time he would have never opened them again.

He could hear noises, someone was also calling him, but all that seemed far away from him.

Suddenly he felt a weight over him. Was death like that?

A few seconds later that weight was gone, maybe that was like a transition when the soul left the body.

“ Baekhyun, open your eyes, please please.”

“ He’s gone Baekhyun, come back to me!”

That voice was desperate, he had to answer to him.

“ C-Chanyeol.”

“ Yes, I’m here!”

He felt his hands gently caressing his face when he finally opened his eyes.

“ I’m not dead.”

“ I would have never let that happen, Baekhyun.”

“ The wendigo?”

Talking made his whole body ache.

“ He’s gone, forever.”

Baekhyun turned his head, on their left he saw the monster, his neck had a strange angle. He wasn’t breathing anymore.

“ When I saw him over you, when I understood that if I wasn’t fast enough I would have lost you, I prayed the wood, I prayed mother nature to give me more strength and my prayers were heard.”

“ You saved me.”

“ No Baekhyun, without your help I would have died, you saved me.”

Chanyeol leaned to kiss him.

“ I’m so tired, Chanyeol.”

“ You’re losing a lot of blood”

“ Will you take me to the lake?”

Chanyeol softly smiled at him.

“ No, not this time, you need a human doctor.”

Chanyeol lifted him up, he could see his beautiful face better from there.

That beautiful face was the last thing he saw before everything became dark.


	13. Chapter thirteen

“ He’s waking up!” he heard a woman saying.

When he opened his eyes everything was blurred.

“ Baekhyun!” exclaimed a male voice next to him.

“ Kyungsoo?” he whispered.

“ Yes, it’s me, you big idiot! We were so worried!” said his cousin before hugging him.

“ Easy Kyungsoo, you’re going to hurt him!”

“ Aunt?”

“ If you weren’t hurt, I’d hit you right now Byun Baekhyun, you scared me to death.”

“ I’m very sorry.”

“ Do you remember what happened?” asked his cousin.

“ I helped Chanyeol, he killed the wendigo.”

“ Yes, the wendigo is gone. Chanyeol came here with you in his arms, you looked already dead Baekhyun! You needed to go to the hospital, but if we took you there they would have asked a lot of questions, it would have been a problem, luckily mum knows a very good doctor, he’s a friend. He came here, he took care of you, and thank god my blood is suitable with you because you needed a lot of it.”

“ Thank you” he said, moved by what his family did for him.

He looked around. He was in his room, surrounded by his aunt’s paintings. His aunt and cousin were there.

“ He’s here, well he’s outside, don’t worry. He never left.”

“ Is he ok?”

“ Yes, he said that after a good bath in the lake he felt very good.”

He smiled.

“ Where do you think to go?” suddenly asked his aunt when he tried to leave the bed.

“ Out.”

“ Hell no kid! I promised your mum to take care of you and look at what happened, now you will stay in bed till the doctor will allow you to leave it.”

“ But-“

“ No, Baekhyun, you stay there. Chanyeol is probably immortal, he waited his long life to find you, he can wait a week or two!” she said before leaving the room.

“ I know you want to see him Baekhyun, but mum is right, your wounds were not a joke.”

“ I know” he sighed.

“ I will keep you company, don’t worry, I won’t let you get bored, even if I know that I can’t compete with a supernatural creature.”

They both laughed.

“ Speaking of that, how is having sex with a huldrekall?”

“ Kyungsoo!”

His cousin laughed.

“ Sorry, not my business.”

He spent a week stuck in bed, his cousin had to help him even to stand up to go to the bathroom.

Once, before putting him in bed again, he said: “ Look outside the window.”

Baekhyun did it and he saw him. Chanyeol was there, looking at him, smiling.

He waved at him and Chanyeol did the same.

That night he fell asleep smiling.

After that week the doctor came to check on him.

“ The wounds are ok, you can walk, but do not run or do strange movements.”

“ Do not have sex!” added his cousin, making everyone laugh.

“ So I can go?”

The doctor nodded.

As soon as he was alone in the room, he got ready.

“ How do I look?” he asked when his cousin entered.

“ As someone who had been almost killed by a wendigo.”

“ Thank you!”

“ You’re welcome! Do not worry, Baekhyun, I’m sure that he doesn’t care about your outfit a lot” he said winking at him.

When he opened the door he took a few steps, looking around, but he couldn’t see Chanyeol anywhere.

What if he got bored? What if he got already tired of waiting and he had left?

“ Are you looking for me, human?”

Chanyeol’s voice scared him.

He turned around and there he was, the huldrekall in all his beauty.

“ You’ve waited!”

“ Of course. How do you feel?”

Baekhyun hugged him.

Chanyeol kissed his head.

“ I feel better now.”

“ Do you want to take a bath?”


	14. Chapter fourteen

“ Come, take my hand. The doctor said you can’t move a lot” said Chanyeol, already in the water, giving him a hand.

“ Did you hear everything?” he asked surprised.

The water felt so good on his body.

“ Yes, everything, also that question.”

“ Which question?” he asked, leaning his back against the rock, enjoying the feeling of the water.

“ How is having sex with a huldrekall?” he asked laughing, making him blush.

“ I hate the fact that you could hear that too.”

Chanyeol pulled him closer to him and Baekhyun laid his face on his shoulder.

“ It’s amazing, anyway, a magical experience.”

“ I felt the same.”

Chanyeol kissed him and he didn’t care if his body was still a little bit aching, but he wanted more. He wanted him.

He pulled him towards him, the kiss became deeper, desperate, as well as their touches.

“ My brave human” he whispered, while his hand slipped between Baekhyun’s thighs.

“ Chanyeol, I want you.”

“ The doctor said-“

“ I don’t care, just...be gentle” he said blushing.

Chanyeol looked at him, smiling.

“ I will take care of you, as always, human.”

Chanyeol was making him feel so good, he almost felt to cry when he felt him inside.

He wanted the time to stop.

“ I’ll miss this when you go back to your home” said Chanyeol, after they both cum and Baekhyun felt so tired that the was leaning on him, not to fall.

“ I don’t want to.”

“ But you have to, your mum is there, your life is there and you have to finish your studies”

“ But you can’t come with me.”

It wasn’t a question, he knew it.

“ I’m the guardian of this wood, I can’t leave it” he said kissing him.

“ So when can i see you again? Next summer?”

“ I will always be here Baekhyun, waiting for you.”

“ Will you wait for me?”

“ Yes, I will, but if you find someone else Baekhyun, a human like –“

He didn’t let him finish his sentence, he kissed him.

“ I’ll wait too”.

“ Your mum is here, Chanyeol” exclaimed his cousin. Three weeks passed from that day, from the day he finally left the bed, after being almost dead. That was his last day there.

He didn’t sleep that night, he spent it outside in the wood, with Chanyeol. They didn’t talk a lot, he was afraid that if he talked he would have cried, so they just spent the night as if nothing was going to happen.

He took a shower and when he heard his mum’s voice from the kitchen he smiled.

“ Baekhyun!” she exclaimed

He ran to hug her.

“ Wow, last time you hugged me like this it was when you wanted a new computer” she said surprised.

“ I’ve just missed you” he said.

“ I’ve missed you too!”

They had lunch together and then it was time to leave.

“ It was a pleasure having you Baekhyun, and thank you, for everything. Please take care of yourself and whenever you want, we’re here” said his aunt hugging him.

Kyungsoo pulled him in a hug.

“ I will miss you a lot Baekhyun!”

“ Why don’t you come to visit us a weekend?”

“ I’d love to!”

“ I still don’t understand how can you feel safe here, I mean you’re isolated and the wood is full of wild animals” said his mum.

“ We have someone who protects us” answered his aunt, winking at him.

“You know that people from where say not to leave the path because otherwise, you could lose yourself and your life too?” said his mum while they were walking along the path to reach the car.

“ I’ve heard about it.”

His mum was right in front of him and she kept talking about his childhood and the wood and how many times she risked to lose herself when he heard something.

_Crack_

_Crack_

Then a breath.

“ Do not turn around” whispered a voice.

A voice that now he knew very well.

He smiled and he turned around, but there was no one.

“ Bye, Chanyeol” he whispered, looking the wood.


	15. A few months later

“ Sending you to your aunt for the summer to study was the best idea!” said his mum when Baekhyun told her about another exam that he passed.

When he went back home, he felt good. Yes, he missed Chanyeol every single day, but he knew that he was there, in the wood, waiting for him, he just needed to finish his studies and have a plan.

His mum was surprised that he was so motivated, she didn’t understand why, but till he was doing well at university she had never asked a question.

“ Do you perhaps have a boyfriend or a girlfriend?” she asked him once, while they were having dinner.

Yes, he had. He was in love with a huldrekall, a guardian of the wood that he couldn’t see or even talk with because he didn’t have a phone.

At that question, he just laughed.

He missed him, a lot.

It was the day of his birthday when he received an unexpected but beautiful surprise.

“ What did you order?” he asked to his mother when he saw her coming into the kitchen with a big pack.

“ Me? Nothing, I thought it was you, the courier just gave me it!”

“ Uh it’s from you aunt!” she said surprised when she put it down.

“ There’s a card” he said, taking it.

_We ALL miss you a lot, happy birthday brave Baekhyun!_

He smiled.

“ Open it, I’m so curious!” said his mother.

It was a painting. That painting.

“ What is this? I saw her painting a lot of strange things, but this?” asked his mother.

Baekhyun smiled while admiring Chanyeol’s painting.

“ I love it, it’s perfect!”

“ Well it’s a gift for you, so I’m glad you like it!”

The day after his graduation his mum received a call from his aunt.

They wanted to leave the house in the wood. His aunt had found a generous client in the city who gave her a place where she could expose her paintings, while Kyungsoo was going to a university in the city. They had already found a nice house, not too far away from them.

“ Your aunt told me to call her, she has something to say to you” said his mother before leaving for work.

“ Aunt?”

“ Baekhyun! I guess your mother told you everything.”

“ Yes, I’m very happy for you!”

“ Thank you, my dear boy!”

“ So are you going to sell the house?”

“That is what I wanted to talk to you about. The best option would be selling it but I don’t really want to see strangers in my house and then I know that place is important for you. I also heard that you want to move.”

She was right.

Before graduating a company that made videogames called him, they were interested in him and he couldn’t lose the chance. The company was in the city but he would have had a lot of works to do at home, that was why he wanted to move, to have peace and enough space for all the things he was going to need.

“ If you want it, it’s yours.”

Could it work?

He could install a Wi-Fi connection, he would have had all the space he needed. He would have been near Chanyeol.

That evening he talked about it with his mother.

“ They’re leaving that place forgot by god and you want to move there? Are you sure?”

He nodded.

“ I can’t understand why you want it, but you’re an adult, if you want it, it’s ok”


	16. Epilogue

The day he moved there his mum, aunt and Kyungsoo helped him since he had a lot of things to bring there. Hour after hour that place became more and more his.

It was late afternoon when everyone left and he was finally alone, in his new home.

For the whole day, he looked around, trying to see Chanyeol but without success. Maybe he didn’t want to be seen by his family.

Maybe he forgot him.

He wore a jumper, the air began to be too cold, winter was almost near, and he left the house.

He followed the path for a while, before leaving it.

The sun was gone and he had almost lost his hopes when he heard something.

“ Chanyeol!” he exclaimed turning his head, just to see a big deer running away.

He sighed.

“Turn around human” whispered a voice in his ear.

“ Chanyeol!” this time there was no deer, the huldrekall was right in front of him.

“ I observed you the whole day, I heard the news.”

“ Why didn’t you come to me? Are you happy?”

“ I wanted to look at you, Baekhyun, and leave you with your family. Yes, I’m happy, I’m happy you’re here!”

Chanyeol kissed him.

“ I missed it” exclaimed Chanyeol.

“ I’m going to stay this time, I won’t go anywhere” he said when Chanyeol hugged him.

“ I think that to celebrate, we should take a bath” he added.

“ But it’s too cold now!”

“ I have a bathtub, Chanyeol, inside the house.”

“ Let’s go, human!”


End file.
